LANSING, Mich. — Attorney General Dana Nessel said her office is working with the Oakland County prosecutor to better define the parameters of her office's investigation into the 2021 Oxford High School shooting.

But Nessel noted her office had been hoping for additional funding from the Legislature to conduct the investigation and was unable to secure the money prior to the House adjourning abruptly for lack of attendance on Dec. 19. She said the office's investigations into Michigan State University's handling of allegations against serial sexual abuser Larry Nassar, the Flint Water Crisis and clergy abuse received extra funding because of how massive they were.

"We have not received any additional money because there wasn't a supplemental," Nessel said during a Monday briefing with reporters. "It doesn't mean that we're not interested in pursuing what remains to be done in terms of an investigation. It just means that now that we know we're not getting any money for it, we just have to figure how to best go about doing it."

The department still is sorting out what is left to do in the investigation, Nessel said, and determining if investigators from other parts of the department need to be pulled into the investigation.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald formally referred the Oxford High School shooting to the Michigan Attorney General's Office in late November. McDonald said she would fully cooperate with the investigation and provide access to all files and personnel with relevant information.

The referral came five days after Oxford families demanded a state-led review of the mass shooting after McDonald in a memo told the families that the attorney general had the authority to investigate the actions of Oxford school district employees without an invitation from the school board.

Nessel said she would need a referral to take on the case, which so far has resulted in successful criminal charges against the student killer, who is serving life in prison without parole, and his parents. Jennifer Crumbley, who along with husband James was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison on involuntary manslaughter charges, is appealing her conviction and seeking a new trial, while Ethan Crumbley had his request to withdraw his guilty plea and get resentenced rejected by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe.

In her referral letter, McDonald said she support the families' calls for additional investigation to "answer questions that remain unanswered and to gather data and information that can be used to save future lives." She said the investigation would "benefit our entire state, particularly our schools and our students."

Nessel told reporters Monday said her office was focused on things that are "outstanding, that haven't been done" and not "redoing the old investigation."

"It's not just about what should have been done differently," Nessel said. "It's about what can we do differently in the future to make sure we don't have another Oxford. I think that should be the priority and the main focus."

Still, Nessel noted Guidepoint Solutions received about $2.7 million to provide an "incomplete report" on the Oxford High School shooting. Guidepoint was hired by Oxford Community Schools in 2023 to review the district's handling of the shooting and hired again last month for a roughly $497,000 contract to perform a comprehensive after-action review of the response.

"We have to figure out how we're going to do it with no additional resources," Nessel said.

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Detroit News staff writer Jennifer Chambers contributed to this story.

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